Book Review

In this substantial edited volume, the authors and
editors seek to explain how the structures and ideas of settler colonialism functioned
in widely different places and times. In the process, they uncovered the shared
realities as well as the real differences of how settler colonialism operated
as a particular mode of domination that, in Veracini's words, "thinks geopolitically" (1). The work is most remarkable for its scope
both in time and place, reaching back into antiquity through today, and
illustrating the reach of settler colonialism with case studies from every
continent except Antarctica. In its breadth, the work makes a powerful case
about settler colonialism as a unique form of colonialism, and also about its
massive reach, importance, and potential in understanding global history.

The text is divided into five parts: Settler colonialism
in the ‘Old World,' the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australasia. Each part
contains four to seven case studies and is preceded by a cursory introduction
on the essays that follow. This geographic organization of the work is clear
and helpful, but it does mean that the introductions are largely descriptive,
and sometimes the reader finds themselves asking what the case studies share
beyond geography. Although students of settler colonialism will no doubt make
their own connections, the lack of guidance in themes and theorizing might make
the work a challenge as an introduction to the topic. The main exception to
this point is Veracini's introductory chapter to the
entire volume. It very briefly, but adequately, brings together the various
stories of settlement and colonialism into a useful group, and makes a good
case for the use of settler colonialism as a valuable transnational lens.

The power of the volume lies therefore not necessarily in its explicit overall
theorizing, but rather its repetition of similar outcomes and modes of
dispossession, reinforced by the vast collection of diverse examples. For
example, Katsuya Hirano's chapter on Hokaido describes the familiar story of how the indigenous
Ainu people were dispossessed of land and access to resources which interfered
with their traditional way of life. This process then continued as new forms of
economy and agriculture were instituted on the island to benefit settlers and
left the local Ainu destitute. Although there were slight modifications, at
least one example of a similar story was described in every continent discussed
in the text.

In spite of the familiar outcomes and modes, the authors
still found room for substantive analysis in the text. Many authors described
at length how typical or atypical their particular example was of settler
colonialism. Most, like Will Jackson in his chapter on Kenya believed that it
was "both exemplary and aberrant" (231). And some, like S. J. Conolly in his chapter on Ireland, came rather close to
arguing that settler colonialism might not be the most correct, or at least the
most useful, theory to understand the history of a particular region. Many of
the differences centered around whose ideas of settler colonialism the
different authors utilized as a framework. Some adhered more to Patrick Wolfe's
arguments that "see settler colonialism primarily as a contest over land rather
than labour" and centered their study on
dispossession and the elimination of the native (292). Others were more likely
to focus on Veracini's ideas about the desire of the
settler colonials to separate from the metropole and usually utilized cultural
history approaches.

The text would be particularly useful for historians who seek a wide-ranging collection
of comparisons with their own work, studying a particular instance of settler
colonialism. The broad scope could facilitate thinking about how a particular settler
colonial situation is or is not comparable to an array of examples across other
diverse regions, and push historians to think more transnationally, which could
strengthen settler colonialism's potential as a global approach to history.

The volume would also be a useful teaching resource for instructors of world history
courses who are in search of themes that can tie the course together. They will
find countless examples of settler colonialism operating in a specific context
and also as part of a march of broader forces such as scientific knowledge
creation, genocide, environmental transformation, decolonization, and
industrialization. Some of the essays might also be useful as discussion
section readings if the course is structured to include them. For example,
James Ciment's essay captures the central role played
by a non-white, but still racialized form of settler colonialism in Liberia. This
essay could facilitate insights and critical inquiry into the multiple layers
of racism in world history. Similarly, Laur Ishiguro's chapter on western Canada could help students question,
problematize, understand, and discuss the similarities and differences of ideas
like the frontier and "westward expansion" in a context outside of the United
States. Sarah Maddison's chapter on Australia and Richard S. Hill's on New
Zealand might offer similar opportunities.

The book is probably less suited as a seminar text for graduate or advanced
undergraduate students because the essays are too short for in-depth
discussion, and few students would have the necessary broad background in all
the regions discussed. However, seminars focusing on a particular region might
find use for a sample of the essays that address a particular country or
region. For example, a seminar on Russian history would be enhanced by
Alexander Morrison's chapter on Russian settler colonialism in Central Asia, a
topic that is important to Russia's history, but often overlooked in favor of
more well-known topics such as serfdom, political violence, or Bolshevik
ideologies. Similarly, a seminar on the Middle East could benefit from the chapters
on Israel and Palestine that include Gershon Shafir's "Theorizing Zionist settler colonialism in
Palestine," Arnon Degani's "From republic to empire: Israel and the Palestinaians after 1948," and Pekka Pitkanen's essay on ancient Israel, "Settler colonialism in ancient Israel." This
collection could encourage a lively discussion and analysis on the
appropriateness or problems of utilizing settler colonialism as an explanatory
lens to understand the history of Palestine.

While the book's scope is impressive, some scholars might
object to the lack of a coherent common ground on what makes settler
colonialism. Nevertheless, the broad collection of stories that clearly share
important similarities that could usefully be called settler colonialism offers
at least the jumping off point of a conversation about this ideology that has
both long historical as well as a massive geographic range. The essays in this
work as a collection and as individual studies are a useful and
thought-provoking addition to the topic of settler colonialism that can shed
light on it as a global phenomenon that is at once universal and peculiar to
particular places. What is more, they offer a challenge to the field of global
history to utilize settler colonialism as a lens or dispose of it as too broad,
ineffective, or too ill-defined to be useful.

Jack Seitz is a PhD Candidate in the Rural,
Agricultural, Technological, and Environmental History program at Iowa State
University and can be reached at jbseitz@iastate.edu.

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